Why Early Music?

Music written hundreds of years ago can sound as fresh and alive today as when it was first heard. Lutes, recorders, sackbuts, baroque violins, harpsichords, and violas da gamba excite the senses now as they did centuries ago.

Since 1975 the San Francisco Early Music Society (SFEMS) has presented high quality concerts, up-to-date publications, and some of the best education programs available anywhere. All this has contributed to the Bay Area’s reputation as one of America’s leading centers for the performance of early music.

The San Francisco Early Music Society seeks to create an appreciative and supportive environment for the study and performance of medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque music by both amateurs and professionals in Northern California. To this end, it works to increase public awareness of the richness and variety of classical music before 1750, to create opportunities for the performance of this repertoire, and to educate musicians of all backgrounds, ages, and abilities in the techniques appropriate to early music.